11 Ways Coloradans Can Tell a Transplant From a Native

Living in Colorado for years doesn’t always make you sound like a native.

Lifelong Coloradans pick up on little clues, from how you say a town’s name to which airport you remember.

Here are the telltale signs that separate the newcomers from the natives.

1. Native Bumper Sticker

The NATIVE bumper sticker lets many lifelong residents announce where they were born.

Denverite says the sticker’s point is that the people in the vehicle were born in the state.

Eric Glade came up with it in March 1979 at age 24.

Glade had sold 75,000 of the stickers within a few years.

Glade was born in Salt Lake City and moved to Lakewood at 14, so the sticker’s creator was a transplant himself.

That’s quite a twist.

A variant sticker reads “Not a native, but I got here as soon as I could.”

If you see that one on a bumper, you’ve likely found a transplant.

Just under 41% of Colorado residents in 2024 were born in the state, according to Census Bureau data cited by the Colorado Sun.

2. Fourth-Grade Social Studies

Many natives share a fourth-grade social studies memory, and if you went to school in the state, you might too.

The Colorado Department of Education’s scope and sequence lists “Colorado” as the focus of fourth grade.

The resources page also points to Colorado Encyclopedia articles leveled for 4th grade and a set of biographies titled “Colorful Coloradans.”

Many transplants spent that year on another state’s history.

3. Mother’s Day Planting

If you plan an early garden, many natives will tell you to wait until Mother’s Day.

The National Weather Service counts September through May as Denver’s snow season, with March ranking as its snowiest month.

Denver7 reports that the rule of thumb in Colorado is to wait until Mother’s Day to plant.

Denver’s average last frost date is mid-May.

A Colorado State University extension professor says waiting until Memorial Day or early June warms the soil for tomatoes and peppers.

4. How You Say Colorado

If you listen for how someone says the state’s name, many natives say Colo-RAD-o.

Colorado Public Radio ran a 2020 reader survey on how people say Colorado, and about 1,700 people responded.

The survey wasn’t scientific.

More than two-thirds of the self-reported natives said Colo-RAD-o.

Transplants were a bit more than 50 percent more likely to say Colo-ROD-o.

Gov. Jared Polis, a native, says Colo-ROD-o, so a ROD doesn’t prove you’re a transplant.

That’s a habit, not proof.

5. Stapleton Airport

Stapleton Airport gives many natives a boarding memory that many newer arrivals missed.

Flight service at Stapleton halted on February 28, 1995, according to the Colorado Encyclopedia.

Denver International Airport opened to the public that same day.

If you flew out of Stapleton, you did it before that day, whether you lived here or were just visiting.

The airport says delays, noise and an inability to expand plagued the old field.

6. Elitch Gardens

A native often remembers where Elitch Gardens first opened, but a transplant often knows only the new site.

Elitch Gardens opened on May 1, 1890, as a zoological garden on a farm near 38th and Tennyson in northwest Denver, according to The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

It moved to the Central Platte River Valley for the 1995 season.

If you picture the park there, you’re picturing it after that move.

7. Colorado Town Names

If you’re new to the state, town names like Buena Vista and Salida can trip you up, while many natives say them without a second thought.

Colorado Public Radio says in its 2019 list of town pronunciations that the names trip up out-of-towners and new Coloradans all the time.

Buena Vista is BYOO-nuh Vista, Salida is suh-LIE-duh and Ouray is YOU-ray.

Cañon City is CAN-yun City.

8. Casa Bonita Visits

A native often has a Casa Bonita story from before the closure, but a transplant often knows only the reopening.

The Lakewood restaurant closed in March 2020, according to the Denver Gazette.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone bought it in September 2021 for $3.1 million.

Casa Bonita announced an invitation-only reopening on May 26, 2023.

A first visit after the reopening means you know only the reopened restaurant, while a visit before March 2020 means you saw it before the closure.

9. Rocky Mountain News

If you ask a native which paper they grew up reading, you’ll often hear the Rocky Mountain News.

The newspaper began on April 23, 1859 and put out its last edition on February 27, 2009.

The Rocky Mountain News had a regular daily circulation of about 210,000, according to NBC News.

That makes it a tell mainly for people who grew up before 2009.

10. Broncos Stadium Names

Many natives still say Mile High no matter which sponsor’s name hangs on the Broncos’ stadium.

The home of the Broncos has had four names since 2001, counting a temporary one, going by the names in a CNBC report.

Invesco Field at Mile High came first, then Sports Authority Field at Mile High, then a temporary Broncos Stadium at Mile High after the 2016 bankruptcy.

Empower Field at Mile High was announced in September 2019 with a 21-year deal.

If you hear someone say just Mile High, you’re hearing a habit that has held through four stadium names.

11. Mount Blue Sky

If you grew up near Denver, you might know Mount Blue Sky as Mount Evans, as many natives do, while many transplants know only the new name.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted 15-1 with 3 abstentions on September 15, 2023 to rename Mount Evans as Mount Blue Sky.

The vote wasn't unanimous.